big yum yum book
big yum yum book
Scrimshaw, 1975 (reprint SLG 1995)
Back in 1963, Crumb spent six lonely months sequestered in his sleazy bachelor pad on Cleveland’s east side creating this adult version of the old beanstalk to paradise fable with a decidedly ’60s flavor. Exquisitely colored and wittily written, the BIG YUM YUM BOOK shows us a side of Crumb we seldom see. Like his hero Oggie, Crumb also found love and romance. Within a few days of completing the story Crumb met and fell in love with Dana, also a horny young virgin looking for love in a sad, jaded world. They married and lived happily… for a while…, but that’s another story.
“I just want to explain that I drew this story when I was nineteen years old and still a virgin. Now I am thirty years old and find the book somewhat adolescent and immature. Personally it embarrasses me now, but probably a lot of people will like it better than the stuff I turn out currently. Others, I’m sure will put it down for being too cute, etc. I’ve changed a lot and so has my work, but this does have a certain innocent charm. Dana loved me for it.” R. Crumb
“Crumb’s work has had a revolutionary effect on the comic-book industry…laughter is his weapon against everything.” The New York Times
“…Robert Crumb, who came out of underground comic books in San Francisco in the 1960s and is now considered one of the great formative influences in comics and satire over the last three decades. …he’s not simply drawing these images for fun, or to make money. He’s drawing them because he has to.” Roger Ebert
ROBERT CRUMB, now 55, is the creator of Zap Comix, Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat and Keep on Trucking. He is now living in the south of France and agonizing over being the focus of the award winning film “Crumb”, by Terry Zwigoff
Harvey Pekar, is the author of American Splendor Comics, co-author with Joyce Brabner of Our Cancer Year, 1987 winner of The Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award and old friend of Robert Crumb. He lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. “American Splendor,” a film biography staring Paul Giamatti as Harvey, won the grand jury prize, the top dramatic honor at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.
Dana Crumb, R. Crumb’s first wife, was there when it all happened. She is also the author of two cookbooks, “Eat It” published in 1974 and “Still Eatin’ It” published in1996 by SLG Books.